ASPECTS OF THE VALLEY 43 



center, there would appear a sinuous shiny line, 

 like a serpent with glittering skin lying at rest 

 on the grass. For the river must have been to 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of the valley the one 

 great central unforgettable fact in nature and 

 man's life. If as nomads or colonists from some 

 cis- or trans- Andean country, they had originally 

 brought hither traditions, and some supernatural 

 system that took its form and color from a differ- 

 ent nature, these had been modified, if not wholly 

 dissolved and washed away in that swift eternal 

 green current, by the side of which they con- 

 tkiued to dwell from generation to generation, 

 forgetting all ancient things. The shining stream 

 was always in sight, and when, turning their 

 backs on it, they climbed out of the valley, they 

 saw only gray desolation a desert where life was 

 impossible to man fading into the blue haze 

 of the horizon; and there was nothing beyond it. 

 On that gray strip, on the borders of the unknown 

 beyond, they could search for tortoises, and hunt 

 a few wild animals, and gather a few wild fruits, 

 and hard woods and spines for weapons; and 

 then return to the river, as children go back to 

 their mother. All things were reflected in its 

 waters, the infinite blue sky, the clouds and heav- 

 enly bodies; the trees and tall herbage on its 

 banks, and their dark faces ; and just as they were 

 mirrored in it, so its current was mirrored in their 

 minds. The old man, grown blind with age, from 

 constantly seeing its image so bright and per- 



